Tag Archives: Trudeau

Donald Trump unleashed a series of controversial late-night tweets from the G7 Summit in France over the weekend, reigniting his feud with Ilhan Omar and attacking Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.The president promoted an unfounded and incendiary claim purported by the far right online that Ms Omar, a Democratic congresswoman of colour and former refugee from Somalia, married her brother years before she took office in 2018.

American officials are working to secure the release of two Canadians held by China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The two Canadians — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor — were detained in December and accused of espionage. The detention came nine days after Canada had arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant.

Beijing on Thursday accused Ottawa of worsening bilateral relations after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to stand up to China amid deepening diplomatic and trade disputes. The two countries have been locked in a feud since last December, when Canada detained top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and — in apparent retaliation — China detained two Canadian nationals over espionage-linked accusations. On Wednesday, Trudeau pushed back against Beijing in a speech that promised to “always defend Canadians and Canadian interests” and to not “back down”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing renewed calls to resign after a secretly recorded telephone call between two senior figures in his administration was made public, escalating claims he tried to shield an allegedly corrupt firm from prosecution. The 17-minute call took place in December between Jody Wilson-Raybould, then the attorney general, and Michael Wernick, then Canada’s most senior civil servant, about the engineering company SNC-Lavalin, which was accused of paying bribes to Libyan officials. Mr Wernick is heard in the audio telling Ms Wilson-Raybould that Mr Trudeau is interested in having the firm avoid criminal prosecution in favour of paying a fine, repeatedly saying that the prime minister is in a “pretty firm” frame of mind on the issue. "I think he is going to find a way to get it done one way or another. He's in that kind of mood. I wanted you to be aware of that,” Mr Wernick is heard saying at one point. Ms Wilson-Raybould in turn pushes back, raising concerns that the conversation could amount to “political interference” and an attempt to breach her “prosecutorial independence”. She declined to push for the prosecution to be dropped. Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former Canadian attorney general Credit: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP Ms Wilson-Raybould was eventually moved from the role in January, one month after the phone call, and given the more junior position of veterans affairs minister. She has since resigned and gone public with claims she was inappropriately leaned on. The audio was released by Ms Wilson-Raybould along with more than 40 pages of documents backing up her allegations. She said that she chose to secretly record the conversation because she was concerned something “inappropriate” would be said. She said she “took the extraordinary and otherwise inappropriate step of making an audio recording of the conversation” without telling Mr Wernick, adding that it was “something that I have never done before this phone call and have not done since”. Mr Wernick stepped down from his role as Privy Council clerk earlier this month. The scandal has plunged Mr Trudeau’s re-election hopes into doubt, seeing his Liberal Party fall behind the opposition Conservative Party ahead of the vote in October. Michael Wernick, the former Privy Council clerk Mr Trudeau's party has been ahead in the polls for most of his time in office since he won a crushing victory in 2015. But the liberal poster boy, often compared to Emmanuel Macron, now finds his party trailing the Conservatives by around six points, according to the website Calculated Politics. Andrew Scheer, the Conservative leader, said that Mr Trudeau had lost the moral authority to govern and must resign. “He looked Canadians in the eye and told them that no one had raised concerns with him. This is false and he owes Canadians an explanation,” Mr Scheer said of the prime minister. Last month Mr Trudeau denied any wrongdoing and declined to apologise, saying any lobbying by him or his inner circle for the company was done to protect jobs. SNC-Lavalin is one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world and employs around 9,000 people in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voiced strong concern Monday after Chinese state media reported that a former Canadian diplomat detained in the country was suspected of spying and stealing state secrets. “We are obviously very concerned with the position that China has taken,” Trudeau told reporters, referring to the case of Michael Kovrig, who was detained in December following the arrest in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Trudeau reiterated that Canada considers China to have arbitrarily detained both the former diplomat and his compatriot Michael Spavor — a businessman suspected by China of being a key source of intelligence for Kovrig.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voiced strong concern Monday that China suspects a detained former Canadian diplomat of spying and stealing state secrets. The allegations against Michael Kovrig mark a new escalation in the diplomatic row between Beijing and Ottawa stemming from Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. “We are obviously very concerned with the position that China has taken,” Trudeau told reporters.

Justin Trudeau has confirmed that Canada will grant asylum to a Saudi Arabian teenager fleeing alleged family abuse. Thailand’s immigration police chief earlier said that Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun had left Bangkok on a flight to South Korea, with a final destination of Toronto. “That is something that we are pleased to do because Canada is a country that understands how important it is to stand up for human rights and to stand up for woman’s rights around the world,” Mr Trudeau said.

State security officers seized Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat on leave from the foreign service, in Beijing on Monday, in relation to a national security investigation. The arrest comes nine days after Canada’s capture of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver at the request of U.S. authorities.

A Canadian, believed to be a former diplomat, has been detained in China, prompting concern in Ottawa and Washington, as Beijing fumes over the arrest of a senior technology executive. “We are aware of the situation of a Canadian detained in China. The International Crisis Group earlier said it was aware of reports of the detention of its employee Michael Kovrig, a Chinese-speaking expert who served as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the United Nations.